The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-07-16
The CUNNING INDIAN.
But the White Man Thought It Out
and Surprised the Savage.

ing in a little glade" said an In
dian fighter, describing an adven-
ture on the Niobrara river. "That
there was an Indian near by ready
to draw bead on me / had no
doubt. and the idea didn't rattle me
as much as you might suppose. l
reasoned that if there were two
reds they would have run the mule
off instead of killing him. / be-
lieved there was only one, and that
he was some young warrior who
was ambitious to match cunning
with me, and who wanted the honor
of having outgeneraled me. That
tickled me bit. | don't want to
do any boasting, but I've lived in
an Indian country all my life, and
it never happened that a redskin
got very far ahead of me as any
body knows of. 1t was about 10
O'Clock in the morning when ! got
my gentle hint. From the looks
of the body | judged that the mule
had been killed that very morning.
This made it pretty clear that the
redskin had not yet discovered my
shelter. Otherwise he would have
attended to my case first. My first
care was to get out of the neigh
borhood without leaving any trail,
and then to build a small fire at
point mile or so from the camp,
and cut down brush and make
decoy camp. The fire | had used
to cook my breakfast had been
built in hole in the ground and
carefully extinguished when it had
answered my purpose. The red
would smell the smoke of this fire
half a mile away, and | chuckled
as | thought of him skulking
around there and waiting for q man
about my size to come in and he
bored with a bullet.
"The next move was to strike
the river just where the savages
would hit it if looking for my traps.
1t was guess work, of course, but |
SURVEYED the ground, put his head
on nv shoulders for half an hour,
ami when | waded back | was in
ambush in bunch of willows, and
he would have to show himself to
get at me. i reasoned that he
would find the fire and the coun-
terfeit camp by IL o'clock. He
would hang around there until
about 2 O'Clock before he gave UP
looking for me. Then he would
slide for the river, hoping to pick
the up as sat on the ground pulling
me pelts off my catch. Ihad beenin
position over an hour and was be-
ginning to wish the climax would
come, when sudden thought lifted
me a foot high. and inside of a min
ute | was making my way down
the stream. 1t struck me all in a
heap that had reasoned wrong.
The redskin wouldn't come my way
at all, nor come through the woods,
but would 60 further up the river
and come floating along down the
river bank, which was heavily
shaded, and in the shadow. lcame
to a stand about quarter Of
mile below the ambush, and in one
of the small bends of the stream.
| could see up the river clear to the
spot | had vacated, and what do
you suppose happened inside of
ten minutes. Well, sir, that Indian
came floating down at the end OF
an old log, and when he reached
the point opposite where l had
waited to ambush him he rose up,
picked his rifle off the log and
waded ashore, drawing the log after
him and landing it. Then he softly
crept into the willows, and if had
been waiting in the old spot he
would have had my back to him,
and l would have been goner.
The cuss had reasoned it out for
himself. He had discovered that
the camp was bogus. He had
reasoned that l would lay for him
lust where did. Then to beat me
at my game, he had gone up the
stream and hoated down to take me
in the rear. Very Sharp Indian
he was, but there was another
party by the name of Joe Wag-
ner in that neighborhood just then.
I could have shot the red as he left
the water, for | had monstrously
heavy rifle, but l didn't want to. !
wanted to mortify and humiliate
him first. In half an hour he reap
peared, and he was puzzled. After
standing for few minutes he made
up his mind that / had posted my
self further down, and he sets his
log afloat and comes drifting along
with only his nose above water.
Just as he reached me he pushed
the log into the bank, waited for a
long three minutes, and then rose
up and crawled ashore AS he rose
up to get view around him We were
not thirty feetapart. l riz, too, rifle
at my shoulder, and yelledat him {:
"Bah! You are only squaw
at this game!
swell, sir, he was paralysed-
the first case of the kind ! eyer